When Danny Geoffrion reflects on all his family has been through the past three days, one thing about his son Blake comes to mind.

"We're lucky that he's alive," Danny said.

On Friday, Blake Geoffrion, 24, a Montreal Canadiens prospect who grew up in Brentwood, Tenn., and was drafted by the Nashville Predators, was hit hard in an American Hockey League game by Syracuse (N.Y.) Crunch defenseman Jean-Philippe Cote.

The hit sent Blake, who was playing for the Hamilton (Ontario) Bulldogs, soaring off the ice. When Blake landed, Danny said, the bone two inches above Blake's left ear hit Cote's skate. Blake's skull was fractured, and he had emergency surgery.

"They removed the piece of his skull that was about the size of a silver dollar," Danny said by phone on Monday. "They had to replace that with titanium and metal mesh. And that's what the plate consists of, with the screws and all that, so he now has that in his head. It was unreal."

The game took place at Montreal's Bell Centre. Danny and his wife, Kelly, were in the stands when the play happened.

The Geoffrions are a hockey family, and they have seen their fair share of traumatic injuries.

Blake's great-grandfather and grandfather — Howie Morenz and Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion — are Canadiens legends and Hockey Hall of Famers. Morenz died in 1937 after surgical complications from a severely broken leg suffered in a game at the Montreal Forum. In 1958, Bernie suffered a ruptured bowel during a Canadiens practice and needed emergency surgery to save his life.

Blake's injury quickly went from bad to worse.

He was able to skate off the ice under his own power, his head bleeding. Five minutes later, Danny received a call that his son was being taken to the hospital.

In the ambulance, the 24-year-old forward was his typical, happy-go-lucky self.

"Blake was being Blake," Danny said.

About 30 minutes after they arrived at the hospital, however, Danny was asked for consent for surgery to be performed on Blake. Shortly after Danny and Kelly left Blake and went to the waiting area, their son had gone into convulsions.

“"Parts of the skull had gotten into the brain. So they cleaned all that out, and took care of the little bleeding he did have, which was another major thing. He was very, very lucky."
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Danny Geoffrion

"Parts of the skull had gotten into the brain," Danny said. "So they cleaned all that out, and took care of the little bleeding he did have, which was another major thing. He was very, very lucky."

Danny said that about 1 a.m., the doctor informed him of his son's condition. But they needed to do a CAT scan, and if they found increased swelling, it could mean brain damage.

"That's what we had to listen to," Danny said, his voice quivering over the phone.

Danny has since left Montreal — Blake's mother and his fiancée are still there — but he talked to his son Monday morning. Danny said Blake is walking, but cautioned that it's a one-day-at-a-time process. Blake was removed from intensive care Sunday.

"He's doing OK. He's a little raspy, not taking any calls or anything like that because of the tube that they had to insert in his throat made everything raw," Danny said. "But he's in good spirits and tells everybody thank you for all the emails, tweets and texts."

Blake sent out a message on Twitter: "Thank you to everyone for their kind words and support. Today has been a little tougher but continuing to get better."

The Predators drafted Blake in 2006, and he played parts of two seasons for Nashville, which traded him to the Canadiens in February.

His hockey future is now unclear. There's no timetable for this type of injury, though the Canadiens said in a release that Blake is expected to make a full recovery.

Blake, who has his degree from the University of Wisconsin, suffered multiple concussions in the past, which gives his family cause for extra concern.

"You ask me, 'Is he going to be raring to go in a year from now?' Yeah, absolutely, probably if everything goes well, probably in eight months to 10 months, I feel like he'll be a race horse ready to hit it again," Danny said. "But now you can't just look at that aspect of it. You have to look at quality of life when he's 50 years old."

Before they can start thinking about the future, the family is mostly concerned with Blake's present.